Table 2. Average chain area of GBS strains pre- and post-disruption by bead beating.

	Chain area (average pixel count per chain, mean±sd) *
	WT 874391	874391pgapC	874391pDL278	874391ΔcovR	874391Δstp1	874391Δstp1:: pstp/k1
Pre-disruption	17.16 (±14.83)	53.10 (±27.03)	25.23 (±13.74)	52.11 (±30.43)	533.40 (±352.3)	3.20 (±1.97)
Post-disruption	11.46 (±5.73)	14.16 (±8.51)	13.23 (±6.87)	9.26 (±8.52)	15.76 (±5.91)	2.17 (±1.82)
P value	0.029	<0.001	<0.001	<0.001	<0.001	0.020

*Mean area of chains was measured using ImageJ software with images captured at captured using a Plan-Apochromat x63/1.40 objective lens ; the average (fluorescence-emitting) pixel count for thirty30 chains was determined for each strain pre- and post-disruption by bead beating and compared using paired Student’s t-tests.